


There's a first time for Everything

by Lacertae



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - No Sburb/Sgrub Sessions, Awkward Romance, Eventual Fluff, First Dates, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-14
Updated: 2016-05-14
Packaged: 2018-06-08 11:25:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,581
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6852718
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lacertae/pseuds/Lacertae
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>*Eventual Dirk/Karkat* written for wittykitsune</p>
<p>The first time Karkat finally met Dave’s elusive brother was when he accompanied Vriska to get a tune-up of her arm.</p>
            </blockquote>





	There's a first time for Everything

**Author's Note:**

  * For [wittykitsune](https://archiveofourown.org/users/wittykitsune/gifts).



> Two-parter fanfic written for my friend for one of her favourite pairings. Non-descriptive AU universe.

**Chapter 01**

 

The first time Karkat finally met Dave’s elusive brother was when he accompanied Vriska to get a tune-up of her arm.

Initially, Vriska had wanted to go with Terezi. Unfortunately her trial exam was coming up in only a few hours so Terezi had trolled Karkat to go instead; since Karkat’s life was a disappointing pile of boring droneshit and he had nothing else to do, he had been roped into it.

The MechArmory building was big and imposing, a stark grey colour amidst all the more colourful houses and hives surrounding it. It was in a sector of the city Karkat had never seen before, full of upper-caste trolls and humans dressed in prime suits. The adults walked past the two of them without even a glance as Vriska strolled through the streets like she owned the place, Karkat following her brisk pace with a sullen look on his face. It was obvious she would never set for anything less than the best.

There were three different floors of the building, each of them specialized in different kinds of works, and Vriska took the stairs for the second floor, bypassing two doors before entering through the third one and into what looked like a reception.

Vriska was not one to be left waiting, and she straightened her back and walked to the reception desk, slamming her hand down on the bell; a lithe troll with thin, wiry horns hurried her way, his dark skin making Karkat feel on the spot all of sudden. The trolls his age had yet to go through their last pupation so they were still stuck in that awkward middle stage, not quite adults yet but not kids anymore, but adult trolls still looked imposing to him, and dangerous, even when they were thinner than him.

He watched as Vriska flashed the adult troll a smirk, before stating her name, rank and reason for appointment, then Vriska turned to look at him.

 “Hey, Karkat, it won’t be long now so don’t run off anywhere, Terezi would throw a fit if I lose you,” Vriska told him, managing to sound both condescending and amused at the same time. She followed the other troll through a small corridor on the side, leaving a silently fuming Karkat behind.

“I’m not a _dog_ ,” he grumbled to himself, annoyed at her words and at the implication that he was not intelligent enough to stay put.

He fucking _was._

Left with nothing else to do, Karkat glanced around and located the waiting room just past the reception desk; he he stomped over there, resolving to sit down and waste his time waiting for Vriska to come back. The walls were pastel brown, the seats looked comfortable and there was a pile of magazines and newspapers on a nearby coffee table. It did not look too bad, but Karkat was determined to find faults in everything, so he grumbled under his breath and grabbed the magazine on top of the pile to leaf through.

There was nothing interesting in the latest gossips, just more quadrant vacillations of some famous troll and the cheating adventures of a human actress Karkat only knew by name, so he dropped the magazine back where it belonged with a disgusted growl and prepared himself to be bored into an early death.

It would be all Terezi’s fault, and then she’d have to weep over his dead body, spilling teal tears and bemoaning at Karkat’s fate that could have been avoided if only he had found something else to do, and–

Karkat’s inner rant came to an abrupt halt when he felt something tug at the edge of his jacket. He looked down and he found himself staring right into the eyes of what looked like a mechanical bunny. It was made of what looked like polished steel and other assorted metals, with the symbol of a blue hat on its chest and a pair of obnoxious pointed shades on its face. It kept tugging insistently at his jacket, and Karkat blinked, taken aback at the unexpected sight.

“What the fuck are you and what do you think you’re doing?”

The little bunny scrambled back a bit as if surprised by his words, then started a small dancing jig, waving its little arms and legs around. He looked so terribly _cute_ that Karkat’s grouchy disposal mellowed a little.

“Well, we’ve established you’re an apt dancer. Now let me ask you again –what the fuck did you want from me?”

The little bunny perked up, and it was clear he looked pleased by his praise and had no intention to answer his question at all.

It inched forwards a bit, and then tugged at Karkat’s jacket again. Karkat was perplexed. He didn’t know what to expect from the little metallic annoyance, and he had to force himself not to melt any further, since the more he looked at it the more he found it cute.

“Do you like my jacket?” he asked after the third agitated tug.

The bunny nodded and bounced up and down, and Karkat’s lips twitched up in a small smile.

“Well, I bet Dave will be fucking ecstatic to know his personal style has found itself a fan in a little metallic robotic bunny. I will make sure to tell him that when I see him later on”.

Another impromptu dancing jig, and this time Karkat did not fight the smile. He had a bit of a soft spot for cute things, after all, and all his close friends knew.

“As much amusing as this is, you probably have somewhere to be,” he told the little thing. “And I have to go back to being grouchy and annoyed since I’m here wasting time, and you’re too cute and disrupting my concentration”.

The bunny tilted its head to the side, not quite getting Karkat’s words, then turned around and bounced away without making any noise. Karkat watched him go, disgruntled to realise his mood had improved without his consent but unable to fault the little robot for it.

A few minutes later, he was flipping through another one of those ridiculous gossip magazines when he felt another tug at his jacket. He looked down only to find not just one, but _two_ little bunnies looking up at him.

The first was the same bunny as before, but the second was… well. He had absolutely no idea how to describe the second bunny at all. It was a mismatched collection of fabric and metallic joints, where the plush parts of its body was purple and brown and they were held together by all the mechanical additions. Instead of a pair of obnoxious shades, its eyes were visible –one was red, the other green.

“Did you multiply or did you call your friends just to spite me,” he asked, somewhat befuddled.

“That one has a mind of his own,” a voice answered him, coming from somewhere at his right. “He had to call everybody to see and wouldn’t settle for a no”.

Karkat looked up, startled at the unexpected voice, and found himself staring into a bigger, but just as obnoxious, pair of pointed shades. They belonged to a tall human with messy pale hair and wearing a black tank top. Karkat’s eyes trailed up from the visible biceps to what was visible of his face, and it was the combination of the shitty shades and the hair that made things click in his brain.

This was Dave’s bro.

Dave had told him in excruciating detail how his brother, affectionately called ‘bro’, worked as a skilled mechanic in one of the upper parts of the city. As Dave’s bro was not a chatty sort of person and usually kept to himself and had an apartment of his own, Karkat had yet to meet him.

Until now.

“You’re br– I mean, you’re Dirk,” Karkat corrected himself, somewhat surprised.

Whenever Dave spoke about Dirk he always called him ‘bro’, so Karkat had taken to calling him like that in his mind as well, despite having never met the guy before.

“You must be one of Dave’s friends –Karkat, right?” Dirk motioned for the jacket Karkat was wearing. “Dave doesn’t separate from that jacket unless it’s for a better cause”.

The smile on Karkat’s lips could only be described as soft, but it disappeared quickly when he remembered he was still around a (mostly) stranger. Dave loved the shit out of this jacket, but he cared for the wellbeing of his ‘best bro ever Karkat, no offence John but you know how these things go, you win some, you lose most’ even more. The temperatures were rather chilly, so it was no surprise he’d given Karkat his jacket when Karkat’s own coat had kicked the metaphorical bucket and ended up in the trash.

Realising Dirk was still looking at him, unmoving from where he was standing, and that the two bunnies were now having a little dancing party of their own, Karkat shuffled on his seat. He had thought Dirk would be more like Dave –easily provoked into mindless rants– but perhaps he was more similar to Rose instead… quiet and with a fixed stare that was unnerving at best, awkward at worst.

“So uh,” Karkat pointed at the bunnies, catching the first subject he could think of in order to keep the conversation going. “What the fuck are those?”

He noticed the way Dirk’s back seemed to straighten at that. “ _Those_ ,” he put some extra inflection on the word, “are UB and dear, sweet Huggy Bear, the best couple of helpers you could ever hope to build”.

Karkat had a lot of questions. First of all, whether by that Dirk meant he had built them himself, since they seemed like advanced technology… not the kind he expected Dave’s bro to deploy. Secondly, if he was their creator, Karkat really wanted to know why one of them looked like the mismatched, bunny version of Troll Frankenstein. He opened his mouth… only to end up asking instead, “Dear, sweet _Huggy Bear_?”

He was then treated to the familiar sight of a flustered Strider –and in that, Dirk was entirely too similar to Dave. He moved his weight from one foot to the other, head tilted to the side, his hands twitching… Karkat fought down a wave of something resembling fondness.

“They do seem to like dancing,” he decided to change the subject, and turned to look at the two bunnies, who were still entertaining each other with their happy jigs. “Do they really help or are you just shitting me just because you made them and I know shit about your skills?” he was mostly kidding, as Dave spent hours of his time spinning praise for his brother, but the sight of an awkward Strider made Karkat feel less like he was talking to a stranger.

This time, Dirk appeared almost offended. “What is that supposed to be, a clever way to imply Dave’s talking shit about me?”

“Now, let’s not be hasty,” Karkat offered him a grin, “Dave talks shit about _everything_ ”.

The small smile on Dirk’s lips was a personal victory for Karkat.

“That’s too true, but we all know he talks mostly because he likes to listen to his own voice”.

Another shared smirk, this time at Dave’s expense –it was not like Dirk was wrong about Dave’s tendency to talk, often to soothe himself.

With the ice somewhat cracked, Dirk moved away from where he was standing and sat down in front of Karkat.

Karkat, well, he was not above admitting he ogled him a bit. But just a bit. He was not as muscly as Equius (which was good) but he was rather pleasing to the eye, and Karkat could even excuse the shitty anime shades.

Almost.

“What’s making you stick around to talk to me anyway? Nothing else to do around here?” he asked, trying to keep the conversation going. “And here I thought this place would be packed with work”.

“Nah, I just fixed up the last of my clients for today and now I’m just waiting to go home,” Dirk replied, far too casually. “What were you here for?”

“A friend of mine needed a tune-up of her arm, but I’m considering ditching her now to show my appreciation for being left behind to rot in this waiting area,” Karkat replied, honest and blunt, and that answer stole a short, breathless chuckle out of Dirk.

“You’re not one to mind what you say,” Dirk said, and there was a hint of approval in his tone that made Karkat straighten his back just a little. “Dave says your mouth is the mother hole of all that is complaint”.

“I never complain unless I have reason to, just so you know,” Karkat jutted his chin out a little, then added, “and there’s a fucking load of horseshit out there waiting for me to complain about, so who am I to disappoint?”

Once again, Dirk expressed his amusement with a short, quiet chuckle, and yes, maybe Karkat was _a bit_ smitten by all the good things Dave had said about Dirk, and maybe yeah, Dirk was actually rather good looking, because that chuckle caused a flutter in Karkat’s stomach.

“Well then, Dave’s best bro Karkat,” Dirk leaned forwards, hands on his knees, and Karkat could not fault himself for gawking. Just a bit. “If you need a ride, I’m game”.

“I’m pretty sure Vriska would bitch a lot about it if I did that,” Karkat paused, considering the offer.

“I have a bike,” Dirk offered to sweeten the deal.

Karkat’s eyes widened. “Lead the way, Dirk –if today is the day I have to die a horrible death on a two-wheeled trap, best to do it away from that nagging nagger”.

Another small tilt of Dirk’s mouth, and then they were off, the two little bunnies dancing a happy jig as they trailed behind them.

***

“Oh yeah man,” Dave told him later, when he and Karkat were alone in Dave’s apartment, Dirk gone to do his thing, “forgot to mention it, bro was the one who got me that jacket. It was his before, but he got all the buff genes of the family, ripped arms due to all the mecha shit he does with Equius, and I got the lithe as fuck, quick on your feet born to fly genes”.

“Shut that trap Dave before I make you,” Karkat told him, flinging the jacket back at him and hitting him in the face.

“Nah –and you can keep that man, I’m a literal furnace and I have a spare one that Jade and Nepeta covered in glitters. Gotta move up the echeladder of fashion here. You keep that until you buy a new one, ok?”

Dave offered him a small smile and handed him the jacket again. More conscious about where it came from now that he had met the other Strider, Karkat grabbed it and fingered the material of the sleeves, somewhat self-conscious.

He wondered if it would be okay to wear it next time he went to see Dirk, and found himself smiling at the thought –as it implied he would happen to find his way to the MechArmorist in the future. He definitely would not mind, and by the way Dirk had looked afterwards, when he had dropped him off at Dave’s, Karkat was pretty sure he would not mind it either.

**Author's Note:**

> UB is the original name Lyv tyler/Terry Kiser had before John and Rose named it different things. It stands for Uber Bunny. Huggy Bear is the original name for Lil Sebastian (which is the name Jane gave it when Dirk sent it to her). As the bunnies did not pass over to others, they still have those names.


End file.
